Another Side to the Story
by Silverambush
Summary: Has anyone ever wondered why that Jounouchi seems so different compared to the other characters? How he doesnt have any special past and ancient self or a dark spirit haunting him. That he seems to be more tortured then the rest of them. Is it because he is to dark, doesnt have an item, or is it something else? Does he have something the others don't, they just dont know it?
1. The God Puzzle:Awakened Spirits

**A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you will like my new Yu-Gi-Oh! Fic! This is a rewrite of Yu-Gi-Oh! with differences…so it'll be fun, nyeh? Also instead of this being in Yugi's perspective this time it'll be Jounouchi's and there will be a few added quirks to make this fun!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, I am only borrowing the characters for my fan fiction and do not make any money off of it.**

**Warnings: Also there is slight violence in this chapter, you have been warned, and I am a very detailed oriented person so I will put a warning up if you wish to skip these parts. This is also boy x boy, yaoi, male x male or anything else you want to call it. Though it might take a while to get to that point so just to let 'cha no.**

**A/N: On with the story!**

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**Battle 1: The God Puzzle**/_Awakened Spirits_

Duel Monsters…

A game with legendary roots…it can be traced back as far as Ancient Egypt, though it is thought that it was used even further back than that…in times past; it was used to predict the future of men and kings, cities and empires, and…the world…but the art of the ceremonies that choose destinies of all who participated was lost…sealed by a powerful King and his Priests the power could never be used again…but things that are locked away meant to be hidden from all will always be pursued more than any other...but with the fall of the ages of warriors and fighters will these ceremonies called, "Shadow Games" finish what they started?...and destroy the world or…will new and old forces combine together…light and dark willingly merge…or will they destroy everything…?

Our story starts off at Domino High with a bit of mischief and a touch of jealousy… a bell rings in the gloomy building some call prison others school but all the same when the bell rings telling its occupants of their freedom they run swiftly and fast to get out of it, we see two boys wandering the hall way having disobeyed the rules of the school, skipping class until the recess begun, they were both tall for their age both with similar height…one had messy and choppy blond hair that hung in disarray around his face trying to cover up harsh brown eyes with golden flecks dulled by hardships and pain, calloused hands were shoved in a basic and worn out school uniform as he prowled down the hall way, going by the name Jounouchi Katsuya…the one next to him had darker brown hair slicked up to a spike with large amounts of gel, brown eyes the color of dark chocolate and mud stared angrily at anything that came in his path his uniform was newer and more formally worn then his companion's but his hands told the same story of hard work and violence, he went by the name Honda Ootori. These boys were no strangers to violence and hardships but they had tried to leave that life and build something new for themselves…but no matter how hard you try once you have been stained…as you try to wipe it away you will always see the shadowy marks because you know that their there…to others you are as clean as the rest of them but no matter how much you try to scrub and wash away the taint you will always see shadows in the corners of your eyes…let the story begin!

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…Slightly Before…

Jounouchi jerked slightly at the sharp shrill of the bell jerking him from his light slumber. Flinching in pain as old and new bruises cried out from the sudden movement. Opening his eyes coffee with cream brown eyes stared up at the sky sullenly, golden flecks a dull yellow slight hopelessness running through them. 'And here I thought I might actually get some sleep today…' the boy thought miserably. Rolling over he saw his friend and partner in crime Honda guarding the door a magazine loosely clasped in his hand. 'Or he would be if he was awake…his sis must have kept him up with her ranting last night…' Jounouchi thought amused at his friend and slightly thankful he hadn't seen his laps in control over his body. Rolling over slowly he stretched his aching muscles before strolling over to Honda and tapping him hard enough, to be noticed, across the cheek.

Sputtering slightly deer brown eyes looked up into the more golden version of his friends. "Wassup Jou?" he asked "We need to go in; it's recess the teachers will be coming up here to patrol." Jounouchi answered. Honda yawned widely before getting up and following his more solemn friend into the building.

…Current…

The two ex-gang members looked around lazily before they passed their class, watching as the 'better' (1) students filed out and into the hallway to go out and play in the court. A louder boy stood in the door way as he yelled, "Hey Muuto! Why don't you come out and play instead of staying in here all the time?" Hearing the meek reply Jounouchi stopped, "It's alright…even if I joined I'd only make you lose so I don't want to burden you all."

Jounouchi growled slightly at the weak tone of one of his class mates. He knew who it was Muuto Yugi a small for his age kid with tri-colored, the outer band a dark purple that faded into black and long blond strands that hung and framed his small heart shaped face the outer layer being in the shape of a five-pointed star. With round purple eyes and a weak smile who much preferred the company of puzzles and games due to being socially inept. Many people thought Jounouchi was an idiot but you couldn't live and fight on the streets on a day to day basic…alone…and be incompetent, so he just hid his knowledge and abilities for things like observation and planning so others would leave him alone. Jounouchi had rules, rules that he didn't know where they came from or if someone told him to follow them, but he knew that he should always follow those rules because they had never led him wrong so far in his life.

_One, Be wary of strangers, be able to tell genuine emotions from the fake, others will take advantage of you if you don't._

_Two, Live your life the way you want to and never how others do, for if they want to be your friend but ONLY if you act a certain way then they are not TRUE friends, true friends will show up on their own, but you must be willing to let them in._

_Three, Tell the truth as much as possible. If you must lie, try to lie by omission or lie as based on the truth as possible._

These were just the top three rules that had been branded into his mind; he did not have the best of memory at times, especially since the time he lost his memories only bits and pieces had returned, but these rules and the rest were imprinted in his mind, and he knew he would never forget them.

Living by these rules, he knew that others were not bound by these rules like he, but it still irritated him to know that his intelligent class mate was passing up on a chance to enjoy others company when he was asked daily and kindly, while he and Honda got passed up others always looking scared as they glanced at them. It filled him with a sort of hate and rage for the smaller teen, most of the time he ignored it nonetheless it irritated him that the weak willed boy passed up on the offer daily when he was so obviously lonely. Like he had been before he had made his pack (2) back in his gang days, but instead of the anger and rage that had brought his pack together the tri-haired kid seemed to prefer giving up and settling in a pit of self-pity.

'Well I'm gonna fix that!' he thought teeth grinding in anger before he signaled Honda to follow him into the room whispering his plan as he went. Walking into the room they stared at Yugi curiously as he looked at a golden box with ancient symbols on them muttering as he started to open the box.

"It has a riddle! This treasure can be seen but you have not seen it…what could it mean...?" The smaller boy murmured.

Honda fed up with just staring and being just as impatient as Jounouchi when he wasn't entertained, snatched up the box looking at it closer curiosity peeked. "Yugi what are you doing in here, its super dark and gloomy!" Though Honda meant them in a more caring way his ruff voice and scary demeanor gave off the impression of taunting. Jounouchi stared at the golden box mind trying to work out the riddle. "Can be seen but you haven't seen it?" the blond murmured lightly. Yugi jumped up in distress and chased after Honda crying out, "Give it back Honda-kun!" Dancing agile out of the way Honda smiled tauntingly at Yugi before in fake football announcer voice yelling, "And he passes it to Jounouchi!" Shrieking lightly Yugi yelled, "Be careful!" Catching the box easily Jounouchi stared at it curiously tilting his head to the side trying to find out its secrets while distractively saying, "For you to be such a girl about this thing it must sell for a pretty penny…" Seeing Yugi jumping around Honda to get closer to him Jounouchi rolled his eyes, "…And your jumping is getting annoying, so quit it."

Getting closer to the tri-haired youth so that they were face to face he said seriously, "I'll teach you how to man up! So...", backing off slightly he held the box up in the air, "I'll give you back the box if you try with all your might to get it back." 'This will help him build a back bone and become stronger.' Nodding his head at the thought Jounouchi twitched in irritation and pain when his ears were assaulted by Yugi's high voice as he screamed, "But I HATE violence and fighting! So give me back my box." With slightly tear filled eyes Yugi presented his hand waiting for the box. Jounouchi stared at the teen for a moment, 'He has guts that's for sure. But no strength to back it up, and in this world asking won't get you anything. If it had I wouldn't be here as I am now, better to toughen the kid up now then to let the world destroy him later.' He thought his reasoning sinking lower and lower into depression.

Honda seeming to have similar thoughts walked over to Jounouchi before tossing over his shoulder. "Not a chance." Curiosity overwhelming him Jounouchi looked at the box curiously, "What's in here anyway? Only one way to really find out." 'That riddle is seriously bugging me.' He thought afterwards. Yugi looking slightly frantic and proud in one beat waved his arms around, "You can look, but be very very careful I don't want lose any of the pieces!" Opening up the lid Jounouchi peeked into the box seeing a clump of jumbled up 3D puzzle pieces, fingers itching to mess with the pieces and see if he could put them together, but he knew from when his mom used to buy the 3D puzzles for him and his sister that his attention span would not allow him to finish the puzzle. It would probably take him years before he could finish it. Closing the box with a sigh he felt what seemed like an unnatural warmth from the box, he motioned discreetly to Honda that he was going to pass the box before seemingly throwing the box over his shoulder carelessly saying, "Well that's dull."

Before Honda could catch a small and well-manicured hand snapped forward and snatched the box out of the air. Jounouchi saw Honda flinch stilling his body not because of the proud girl but because of his instinctive reaction of wanting to attack the object that had lashed out so quickly. Though to others it would look like a flinch of fear. They both knew they wouldn't hit a girl unless attacked first and not deserving it not only because it was the gentlemanly thing to do, but also it was one of those rules. Jounouchi had told Honda about his rules and Honda being a part of his pack had followed his rules just like the rest and rule four was keeping their bodies immobile.

_Four, Always be respectful to your opponent, but never pick on someone who is weaker than you if you know your opponent is weaker than you acknowledge their wish that you don't hold back but do not senselessly hurt them for your own amusement, and though most women do not want to acknowledge it their bodies are naturally weaker than a guys if both are trained to fight. This does not mean a girl cannot win a fight it just means she is less likely. So always be courteous to girls and do not hit them in anger unless they are attacking you and it is self-defense._

It was one of the longer rules but it was more indebt then the others so as not to make a super long list of dos and don'ts. Looking proudly at the ex-gang members she said, "If it's so dumb then give it back to Yugi and stop picking on weaker people." Tsking slightly, at the girl's over protective behavior Jounouchi frowned, he knew from observation that Yugi was already shy by nature but his single friend's obvious need to protect and coddle him made it worse. 'Annoying women…'(3a) he thought irritated. Walking quickly towards the door Jounouchi heard Honda yell back at the two as they left before he did something he regretted afterwards.

…With Yugi and Anzu…

"Well here's your box back Yugi." Anzu said smiling chin length brown hair framed a pixie shaped face and sharp blue eyes. She was a head taller than her friend but didn't mind so much. Amethyst colored eyes looked at her in awe as Yugi cradled his treasure carefully. "You're so cool Anzu!" "Not really those guys are just punks. What's in the box anyway?" Looking around secretively before turning back to Anzu. "I can show you but you have to promise not to tell anyone." The brown hair girl waved her consent before looking down as the box was opened presenting golden puzzle pieces. Yugi explained what the puzzle pieces did and how he came to be with them. Also he talked of the origins of the puzzle pieces, "This puzzle came from a dig in Ancient Egypt when they discovered a Pharaoh's tomb! And I think the engravings on the puzzle say that whoever finishes the puzzle gets one wish! Though I've been trying to finish this puzzle for eight years and haven't gotten any closer it gets me kind of down." Placing a hand on Yugi's shoulder Anzu smiled winking, "Don't worry just keep trying you'll get that wish eventually!"

Smiling Yugi nodded excitedly at Anzu a large smile on his face. "By the way Yugi what is your wish?" Laughing and winking back at his friend Yugi said, "Can't tell you it's a secret!"

…Out in the Hallway…

"Man that women is so bothersome."(3b) Jounouchi said irritated. 'Can't she see that if she keeps coddling him he's going to not be able to live on his own I'm only trying to help?' Further irritated by his thoughts Jounouchi wanted to pull at his hair in frustration. "Who's picking on weaker people?!" "Well to others buddy it looks like we are." To distracted by each other's conversation they didn't know someone was in front of them until they ran into them.

Stepping back to rebalance himself he looked up at Ushio the Public Morals head. "What do you mean 'picking on'?" the giant asked. "I might've meant you!" Jounouchi said angrily, his frustration from earlier made him want to pick a fight even if he was ignoring rule five and six. Honda grabbed him and pushed him back until he was standing in front of Ushio. "Oh well he didn't mean anything by that." Honda said smoothly squeezing down on Jounouchi's mouth to get him to see reason and stop biting his palm. Ushio spoke, "Bullying is wrong." 'Yeah right you evil mountain, what ground do you have to talk? Jounouchi thought twitching. "That's right." Honda said both to appease the angry giant and because he meant it. When Ushio finally left he rounded on Jounouchi shaking him. "Don't you remember the rules?!"

_Five, Do not start a fight, only fight for practice, self-defense, protecting territory, and if you are helping another._

_Six, Do not engage in a fight you know you can't win unless you have too. Fight honorably in the sense that if your enemy is one do not sic five men on him for this is another form of bullying._

Jounouchi's head cooled off and he sighed, "Yeah you're right, it's just annoying is all." "So what're you going to do about Yugi?" "Umm, while I'll was looking at the puzzle box I took one of the pieces now he'll be forced to confront me and man up some." Looking at the puzzle piece he took a weirdly shaped eye stared back at him before a spark seemed to travel off the puzzle and zap him. "Ouch!" The piece seemed to get angry at his plan because the longer he held it the more fiercely it zapped him, before long he couldn't hold it tossing it quickly out the window before it could blow up or anything it landed it the pool, sinking into its depths. "What're you going to do now Jounouchi?" Cradling his hand he stared at where the piece had sunk, "I'll work something out I guess." In a sense he knew he was glad he had thrown the puzzle piece, it made him feel hollow when Yugi spoke so fondly of his treasure. "Better he grow up now than later." He repeared

…With Yugi After School…

Walking merrily out of the school Yugi could only think of going home and working on him puzzle. Hearing a voice call out to him he was faced with a brute of a teen. He was gigantic with broad shoulders and bulky arms, beady black eyes sent a shiver down his spine even though his face seemed to be friendly, black hair spiked up in random directions and thick brows scrunched together. "Muuto, Yugi-kun is it?" "Yes?" "I'm Ushio from the Public Morals Committee I have some questions. Has anyone picked on you recently?" "No I haven't been picked on." He knew to others Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun's actions seemed like bullying he knew they were just trying to toughen him up. "Your voice seems to wobble Yugi-kun. I think for the good of the school I shall investigate this." Clasping Yugi's small rounded shoulders Ushio yelled happily, "Don't worry Yugi-kun! Just think of me as your paid bodyguard!" Completely confused Yugi walked away unaware of Ushio's sinister plot.

Arriving at the game shop Yugi smiled when he saw Anzu waiting for him. Opening the door for her he smiled and yelled, "I'm home!" "Welcome!" yelled Muuto Sugoroku or Yugi's Grandpa. Screaming in fright at the appearance of the scruffy old man in a bandana Anzu jumped back. "Well Anzu I'm going to go upstairs and work on the puzzle." "What! I thought you gave up on that." Grandpa said. Yugi stared at the man annoyed, "Who said anything about that?" Grinning tauntingly at his grandchild he said, "It takes a person with more intellect than you to figure out that puzzle, and also that puzzles cursed. The people who first found that puzzle and took it from its resting place in the Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb all mysteriously died afterwards. And they say the last one was screaming about a 'Shadow Game'?"

Anzu gazed warily at the box before looking over at Yugi, "Yugi that doesn't sound safe." Completely ignoring his friends warning Yugi stared at the puzzle excitedly, "That sounds so interesting I'm more curious now than before." Grandpa continued, "The markings on the box actually mean "The one that controls me I shall give dark wisdom and strength." "Yes! That means my wish will come true." Ignoring the others Yugi rushed up stairs and immediately started working on the puzzle. Anzu sighed at her friend's exuberance before shaking her head and walking out of the shop. That night as Yugi worked he built the frame work of the puzzle showing that once completed it would make an inverted triangle. Sleep over took him and Yugi feel asleep hand resting on his puzzle.

The next day Yugi was once again in the room alone during recess, tired from working on the puzzle for so long, when Ushio came and asked for him to come look at something. Following Yugi stared in horror at the beaten bodies of Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun.

…Earlier…

Jounouchi and Honda went to school on time like they did every day, though they still missed class because every little class disturbance was blamed on them just because of their history. Again today Jounouchi was determined to try and get his life on track and take school seriously but within the first period when a rich bully started throwing spit balls and accidently hit the teacher. They were immediately blamed, trying to defend himself Jounouchi pointed out the true culprit only to get slapped by the teacher for lying about such a star student.

Anger boiling up from the pit in his gut whenever he got hit by adults just because they were adults rage coursed through his veins making his head light as he wanted to lash back at the teacher. Some of his anger must have shown on his face because quickly Honda came over and took Jounouchi's wrists to make sure he didn't punch anything and said glaring at the teacher, "Well if we're such a nuisance we'll leave…" Walking out the door quickly they both just barely caught the teacher's voice when she said, "Good riddance." Honda watched his friend sadly even though out worldly he didn't react to the harsh words he knew they hurt his friend.

Patting the blonds back he released his wrists, "Hey man, ignore her we can do better things." Jounouchi just nodded not saying a word before stuffing his hands into his pockets were no one could see them. He had a thing against his hands, Honda knew from when Jounouchi was in the gang his hands had become calloused and hard. Scars littered across his hands were everyone could see them, that's why he never wanted to shake hands with anyone. He didn't want others to see his shame, and to others they took it as arrogance, that he saw them beneath him. When really Jounouchi was shamed of how his body looked, he hated changing in front of others for this reason, and before and after gym made sure to change in a stall for that reason Honda hadn't ever seen his friend without a shirt on. Staring at his friend sadly he had been in Jounouchi's pack too but he had almost unnoticeable marks from that time. Jounouchi had marks both visible and mental in such large quantities that he was almost broken, only his will to live and pride keeping him alive at this point and a promise he made to person unknown.

Once again distracted by his thoughts he only halted by instinct when he saw his friend tense up, turning his head he glared as he saw Ushio standing in front of them, where they stood in the back court of the school few people ever came there so it became their resting place other than the roof, smiling sadistically. Tensing up and readying for a fight Jonouchi doing the same but instead of getting into a Judo stance like Honda he got into a much loser and more relaxed one. "One can we do for you Ushio?" Jounouchi asked warily.

Ushio smirked before swinging his fist back for added power as he thrust it towards Jounouchi. "You can stand still!" he laughed evilly. Dodging swiftly Jounouchi locked Ushio's arm in place before gliding forward and landing a solid punch on his ribs. The light creaking of bones being pushed inwards and the groan from Ushio made it known that it was a solid hit. Backing up quickly Ushio glared at the two. Jounouchi waiting for the next attack to see if the matter was resolved due to his being able to fight back, Honda watched carefully to make sure nothing underhanded happened. When Ushio sneered and made a whistling noise, a crash in the bushes alerted the two teens to the presence of others when two wrestlers from the team at Domino broke through the bushes and smack them hard in the face the snap of cartilage could be heard as Honda clutched at his nose in pain. Jounouchi allowing his head to turn with the punch suffered less damage and thankfully didn't break the cartilage.

**Alright this is the Warning I promised the Fighting will only get worse from here I shall alert you when it is over (4):**

Growling Jounouchi jumped forward quickly even with his old injures, in the adrenaline rush of a fight he forgot all the muscle stiffness and pain. Dodging a punch he glided under it and pushed up on his attacker's elbow making his arm go up higher, before with his other fist punch hard in the guy's solar plexus causing the guy to lean down allowing Jounouchi to follow up the punch with a knee to the gut. Coughing up spit the wrestler glared up at Jounouchi who said, "Give in." Yelling loudly the wrestler charged forward arms telegraphing an uppercut, waiting till the last moment when the guy's arm was extended to lightly push it away from his face redirecting it away from his body so he could spin to the outside edge of his opponent, before he could spin around Jounouchi brought up his leg and kicked him hard in the back of the neck. His opponent fell to the grabbing dazed and winded from Jounouchi's earlier strikes, looking over to Honda he saw his friend had the other wrestler in a Judo choke hold, before dropping him to the ground. Smiling at his friend Jounouchi walked forward only to gasp in pain when something hit him over the head. Darkness crept over his vision as he sunk to the ground, lights dancing across his eyes. Opening his eyes he saw two more guys standing near his downed friend he guessed there were two more above him that he couldn't see at that moment. Dots still danced across his vision as he tried to gain his bearings to help his friend. One of the boys looked to be from the baseball team and the other the soccer. The baseball team member grinned down at Jounouchi's brown haired friend a baseball bat with a light coating of blood in his grip. Picking up his foot he smashed down hard on Honda's ribs. Yelling in pain Honda's face scrunched up as he tried to wriggle away from his attackers. Quickly the soccer player joined in kicking downed man, when Jounouchi struggled to his feet trying to get to his friend.

Spinning at the sound of something going high speed through the air he brought his arms up blocking the baseball bat that would have broken or seriously injured his skull. Another baseball-men stood behind him. Cringing at the pain in his arms, from taking the direct hit, his mind telling him to disarm the man first. Running in quickly swerving left and right both as a part of his style of fighting and dodging the baseball bat he ducked down quickly before bringing up his locked elbow and hitting his attacker fiercely under his jaw. The baseball-men's head snapped back before he dropped and Jounouchi dropped back to the ground uncaring if he had killed, paralyzed, or just knocked the guy out. "Stay down." He thought quickly before turning to intercept a kick from the soccer player. Agilely jumping away the match turned to him and the soccer player fighting mainly with kicking. Spinning to put more power behind his kick he connected with the other man's leg flinching at the sting as older injuries started to make themselves known. Hooking his leg under the soccer player he pulled himself forward and landed a solid punch in the man's stomach. Coughing up spit the soccer man fell to the ground only to look up and grin. Spinning but not in enough time Ushio had come up from behind and put full force behind a punch to his head. Pain bursting through his cheek as blood filled his mouth he hit the ground coughing up as much blood as he could so he wouldn't choke on it. Looking up at Ushio he growled. Ushio laughed, "Jounouchi-kun it seems you're a real thug after all how bout you join me and we can forget this ever happened?" Glaring at the outstretched hand Jounouchi spit his blood on it as best he could. Ushio frowned before he back handed Jounouchi hard making his body spin as he rolled across the ground.

Walking up to the still blond haired teen he lifted up his head from where it was smashed into the dirt, looking into eyes that had seemed to go completely gold, no hint of brown in them just pure solid gold. "What was that I didn't hear you." Eyes burning with anger Jounouchi pushed his head back as much as he could. "I said, you have witt-mongrel, NO!" Before slamming his head forward to knock viciously with Ushio's. Crying out in pain Ushio pulled back before kicking Jounouchi hard in the side. Spit tainted with blood left his mouth before left the blond's mouth before he struggled up and stood in a fighting stance waiting for his opponents. The wrestlers had woken up a few moments ago along with the soccer and baseball player ran forward to pummel the blond. Fighting with a violence and savagery of a cornered animal Joey's eyes almost seemed to glow with angry blood lust he took on his attackers. But the malnourishment, all his injuries, and sleep deprivation caused him to slow no matter how much he didn't want to. Growling as his enemies started to overtake him, he grunted in pain when he got kneed in the gut. Someone roundhouse kicked him in the rib cracking a few making him gasp as blood leaked out of his mouth. Jounouchi knew at this point that he couldn't win and that he could only take their blows like a man and not give them the pleasure of hearing him in pain. Clenching his jaw hard enough that blood seeped from his gums he refused to make a sound as punch after punch and kick after kick rained down on him. Some breaking things others not, before he started slip from consciousness but he hung on dearly he would NOT pass out from these amateurs!

**Warning: Violence/Fighting Done**

Once the thugs finally exhausted themselves and stopped, Ushio raised his head up by his hair in a similar manner as before. "You still hanging on Jounouchi-kun?" Glazed pure golden eyes stared with hatred at Ushio even though they seemed unseeing. "That's good you're made of tough stuff Jounouchi-kun, too bad you wouldn't join me. But at least you're good stress release and will make me a bit of cash off poor innocent Yugi. I'll be back at recess with Yugi. Bye now, don't go anywhere."

Snarling Jounouchi tried to spit on the giant again only to get kicked swiftly in the face crashing his head hard against the wall darkness flooding around him and swallowing him up. _So much for sleep._

Later Jounouchi opened his eyes having the nagging sense that someone was there only to see Yugi standing in front of them with Ushio he was waving his arms wildly while he stood in front of him and Honda. Once the buzzing stopped Jounouchi could hear the high pitched voice of the tri-haired teen irritating his pounding skull further. "Their my friends!" Jounouchi felt a twitch deep in his heart at the words while in his mind he was laughing madly, "Yugi, yugi yugi you're not supposed to be friends with people like me…idiot." He thought his mental self-seeming to almost break at the words.

"Well you still need to give me my bodyguard fee Yugi. 1,600$!" "What!" Yugi said aloud and Jounouchi screamed mentally. "You can't be serious you oaf, first you beat me and Honda up for your own amusement now you're going to bully Yugi into giving you money for it. If I could stand I don't care how hurt I am I would beat the crap out of you." Jounouchi raged silently. "Oh, if you don't get the money then how about I give you a demonstration." Turning he kicked Honda swiftly in the ribs making the unconscious man groan. "Stop!" Yugi screamed "You've done more than enough leave them alone!" "Darn it Yugi! I wanted you to man up but not in this situation." Jounouchi growled quietly. Ushio scoffed before kicking Yugi hard. "Right, and if you don't bring the money I can show you the real meaning of pain with this." Pulling out a knife he smirked down at Yugi before walking off laughing.

"This is hopeless." Jounouchi groaned mentally as he watched Yugi fall unconscious with Honda from the swift kick to his diaphragm. Snarling in pain as he moved slightly he crawl/carried the two boys to the nurses office before going outside to lie down and wait. Right on time the nurse came back in and saw the two heavily injured boys and started to patch them up. Jounouchi looked down at the medical supplies he had snatched before starting to carefully remove his shirt to start patching himself up. Looking down at his broken and bruised body he stood up slowly growling as he did so. "Don't think about it." He muttered to himself. "You need to scrounge up that money somewhere for Yugi because he got pulled into this problem because of us. But first I need to return what's his." He thought determined. Pushing himself off the building with a shaky breath he hobbled towards his first destination already knowing that it's pointless but still hoping he could fix something.

…Later that Day at Home…

Yugi flinched at the feeling of his injuries as he stared sadly at the money within his piggy bank. "13.40$" he moaned "That's not nearly enough." Fiddling with the puzzle he toyed with placing pieces together distractedly before noticing that they were fitting and going together. Completely giving the puzzle his attention he started to put the puzzle together with incredible speed disbelieving that after all these years he might actually finish the puzzle. Staring at the puzzle in awe that he only needed to put the last piece on and finish the puzzle Yugi stuck his hand in the box only to come up empty.

"What, but no!" Searching frantically around for the missing puzzle piece before sitting down eyes watering. "I guess I wasn't meant to finish the puzzle after all. My wish will never come true!" He said disappointed tears filling his eyes he had worked so long and hard only for it to come to this. Hearing the door to his room open he looked despondently as his grandpa walked in seeing the puzzle Grandpa ran for saying, "You finished it Yugi." "No I didn't I lost a piece." He whined sadly.

Grandpa stared at his grandchild a bitter sweet expression on his face as he twisted the puzzle around in his hands. "You know Yugi you spent eight years on this puzzle and put all your hopes and dreams into it. You should have more faith in the puzzle. You just might be rewarded." Holding out his hand he opened his fingers to show the last piece of the puzzle. "But how?" Yugi whispered. "A while ago one of your friends from school showed up and told me to give this to you. He was soaked probably from being out in the rain, he left before I could say anything." "He also said you were being bullied but he'd take care of it, and that his name was Jonouchi but not to tell you." Grandpa thought as he watched his grandchild prance around in excitement. Picking up his back he carefully placed the money inside before walking out thinking, "You have good friends Yugi."

Yugi carefully placed the last piece in the puzzle. A beam of light shot out of the puzzle hitting him between the eyes knocking him over and out of his chair the puzzle falling down next to him. A distorted voice seemed to float around in the air. "**Let the Games Begin…**"(5)

…The Next Morning…

Jounouchi stared down bewildered at Ushio as he smiled throwing around leaves muttering about money, and that it was all his. Late last night he had felt something was up and that something had changed the hand that had gotten burnt from the last piece of Yugi's Millennium Puzzle had tingled and itched as if telling him it had to do with Yugi. Using both he and Honda's final saving they had gotten enough money to appease Ushio only to come to school early to see this. Honda who had come to pick him up this morning had asked Jounouchi how he could stand the new injuries he had sustained fighting Ushio and his cronies. Jounouchi just shrugged it off it was normal for him he had always healed fast since he was a child that's how he dealt with his constant abuse, because by morning unless it was bone deep the cuts the bruises would be gone or scarred over. He remembered someone telling him it was a gift. Sometimes he agreed but most of the time it was nothing but a curse. Deciding he had seen enough of Ushio he carefully hid his money so it could go back into his safe vault he waited by the lockers to see Yugi.

Seeing Yugi happily skip down the halls the completed Puzzle in his grasp Jounouchi felt his hand tingle and burn looking down at it he tried to see through the wrappings on his hand to the only major wound that had not healed, the burns from the Puzzle, the bruising from the bone deep attacks had turned now to a healthy and healing green covered up by some bandages. As Yugi drew closer Jounouchi carefully tucked his irritated palm into the crook of his elbow before calling out to Yugi. "Yo, Yuggi." The boy stopped and looked bashfully up at the blond. "Jounouchi-kun!" "How are your injuries?" "Their fine, how about yours?" "I feel fine. Speaking of witch, Yuggi, I also brought a treasure. You wanna see it?" "Yeah!" Yugi cried excitedly. "To bad." Jounouchi said teasingly, "My treasure 'Is in plain view but you can't see it'. So I can't show it to you with your eyes."

Yuggi looked at the blond with confusion until he saw a smile spread across his face. "It's friendship. Yuggi and Jounouchi may be visible but our friendship is not." Jounouchi's eyes seemed too lightened and the golden flecks expand until they shown brightly. Tears formed in Yugi's eyes as he nodded his head quickly. Jounouchi stared for a moment when those large purple eyes grew moist and his own words caught up with him a large blush worked up his neck and towards his ears. "Well we gotta go ta class!" He yelled running off as quickly as he could. Yugi called after him, "Wait Jounouchi, you forgot to change your shoes."

* * *

A great and powerful friendship was born this day. But at what cost, a wish granted by darker forces have great consequences…will this be the same? And powerful magic gathers other magics to it…what happens when it wakes something that was thought long dead…

* * *

**A/N: Whoohoo it's done all 13 pages and 6,951 words of it. Got really close to 7,000 didn't I? Oh, well. Sooo, what did 'ya think?**

**Clarifications:**

**The reason they call them 'better' students is because to society and the teachers Jounouchi and Honda are seen as nothing more than delinquents even if they try to change.**

**The reason Jounouchi calls his group pack will be explained at a later date. So don't worry.**

**I bet some of you know where this is from comment and tell me where you think it's from, if you want to. I mean seriously if you follow his speech patterns he kinda sounds like this guy.**

**From now on when I have a warning I will label it something like this Warning: Fighting/Violence.**

**Yami speech will be in bold, Hikari in normal**

**Also I don't know if I just want to skip to where the anime season 1 starts or show their friendship and powers growing by including a few chapters of season 0. I'm leaning on the fence so if you have a suggestion you can say that too.**

**Please Review and give me feedback!**

13


	2. Dragon's Greed:Spirit's Walking

**A/N: Hello everyone this is this month's update. I wasn't going to post it this day or even write it today but I got a nice review and it got me into a spirit of writing and I couldn't wait to sit down and start typing. So yeah we got the next chapter surprising how reviews can sway your muse, nyeh?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, I am only borrowing the characters for my fan fiction and do not make any money off of it.**

**Warnings: Mentions of gang related activities, slight abuse, some violence and the word porn is used in this chapter. This is also boy x boy, yaoi, male x male or anything else you want to call it. Though it might take a while to get to that point so just to let 'cha no.**

**A/N: On with the story!**

* * *

**Battle 2: Dragon's Greed/**_Spirit's Walking_

One brown eyed teen with flecks of gold stared unseeingly at the hand of cards. He knew something was off when Yugi had started to teach him about the game, Duel Monsters, it had confused him not because he couldn't figure out how to play the game but because he felt like he had played it before. Which he knew was quite impossible because one the card game was quite recently made, two he didn't have the money needed to gain the cards and equipment needed to play it, and three he would have to have the cards somewhere to have played it. Even if he got bored with the game, which he knew he wouldn't because the stimulation from playing it was too exciting, he wouldn't have thrown away the cards because he spent money on them.

'Maybe I started to collect the cards before I lost my memory. The game has been out longer in America than here in Japan, and I lived in America for a long time we only moved here after 'the incident' that lost my memories… If that's true than the cards, if I had any, were lost in the move or were taken by Kaa-san unknowingly when she packed up random items and left with Serenity. I wonder if I looked would I be able to find them. Something inside me wants them back. Is it a memory? Or am I making up random stuff so that I can at least pretend that I am an incomplete puzzle missing dozens of pieces most lost to memory lost other violently torn from me during my violent life. But…if it is some kind of phantom memory…could I possibly being getting my memory back?'

"Jounouchi-kun…Jounouchi-kun…Joooounoooouchi-kuuuun! Earth to Jounouchi-kun! You in there it's your move you know?"

Honey colored eyes blinked before refocusing on lavender colored ones. His new friend and companion Yugi stared at him curiously a small smile on his face as adorably cute eyes blinked up at him. Jounouchi looked down at his cards blinking slowly, 'Oh…right we are playing right now…' he thought slowly. Looking down at the board, due to his inexperience with the game, or if he had any experience with it he didn't remember, and the fact that his friend seemed to be a master of the game, and because he didn't have a large amount of cards to choose from being he could only buy new decks or booster packs when he had any pocket change which was mostly never or the cards that people didn't want and were willing to give to him for free which were mostly crappy cards his deck was terrible and he knew it. He tried to make it work to the best of his ability but got trampled by anyone with even the smallest amount of skill because they had more money to spend on the game and the openness of the game caused him confusion. With no really set rules for the game except stronger monster beats weaker monster, spells and traps can take down any monster if used right and fields were important. These may sound like easy rules to understand to anyone else but the rule's unevenness caused Jounouchi migraines. Though he tried to keep playing the game, not only to see if he could understand it, in a way he felt drawn to the game, and because his only really normally gained friend who he actually liked, liked to play the game.

Replaying his last thought he wanted to tear his hair out. He knew he should be happy to gain friends even if they weren't perfect because the Lord only knows how messed up and imperfect he was…but really out of all of Yugi's friends he could only really stand Ryou and Yugi himself. Honda was his in the fact that they had been friends long before they ever met Yugi or Ryou. And though he admired Yugi's kindness it was driving him up a wall, he continuously sacrificed himself for others and required constant attention to pull him out of his messes, he didn't even care to guess what kind of luck the tri-haired teen most have to not have died by now.

Wanting to slam his head on his deck in wariness he almost groaned and that doesn't even cover the fact that his two new charges were both so innocent that Jounouchi with Honda's help have had to beat off would be perverts and attackers with sticks, bricks, mops or anything they could get their hands on at the time. It was continuous the two shorter boys seemed to be completely clueless to the fact that they were the targets of every male pervert in the school who wanted to do unseemingly things to them. And though everyone said Anzu was a doll Jounouchi personally couldn't stand her. She was overconfident and overbearing and was too arrogant about her own power. She seemed to think that her female status would keep attackers from hurting her. Snorting at the thought he thought about all the men he had come to associate with during his gang days that would be quite happy to show her why that was such a heavy misconception, and even though he didn't like her as much as Yugi and Ryou he would still protect her because she was a part of Yugi's pack and Yugi was a part of his so by linkage got his protection as well. Jounouchi knew friends would be force you to work but he never knew it would be this much, his home life had also become worse and worse. Due to the energy and time he spent saving his new charges he came home exhausted and didn't even have the energy to fight off his father's drunken abuse. Having just to except it though, he seemed to be blacking at more and more during these episodes. 'Probably a self-defense mechanizes.' He thought.

Looking back at the board he sighed inaudibly, 'Really there is no point to continuing the game Yugi has me beat and we both know it he's just trying to not make me feel bad at this point.' Jounouchi thought irritated. He knew his friend was trying to act like a teacher and help him learn the game when he had expressed a desire to learn it after seeing a book about the game and feeling a pull from his soul to play the game. He also knew his friend had pulled all-nighters to learn the game to the best of his ability and ask for tips from his grandpa to become better just so he could teach him. He had seen the effects of Yugi's work seeing him come to school with large bags under his eyes but still looked extremely happy with himself. Even with Yugi being a patient teacher and Ryou started to get into the game to, to support him Jounouchi felt he should be doing better at this than he was, the fast pass of the game made his mind rush in glee because slow things were too boring but the fact that he couldn't even gather the cards to put up a fight was causing him great amounts of stress. 'That's it next time we are in Serenity's vicinity I am going through the boxes Kaa-san shoved in the attic due to accidently packing either mine or Dad's stuff in them, and looking to see if there are cards in them.' He thought annoyed.

Pretending to look like he was in deep concentration he waved his hand above his five playable cards when a familiar tanned and muscled arm of his elder friend Honda wrapped around his neck loosely as not to make Jounouchi react violently. "Isn't he cute when he's thinking?" Honda said teasingly. Jounouchi rolled his eyes sometimes Honda act overly familiar just to keep others away from the two. Back in the gang due to Jounouchi's blond appearance and lanky body many of the guys wanted to make him their 'bitch' or sex-slave if they wanted to be more blunt about it. After Jounouchi had almost beaten a group of guys to death for trying to force themselves upon him Honda started to act like he was Jounouchi's partner to sway guys away for his and Jounouchi's sake and also their own. After playing the role long it's just how the two naturally acted when around each other.

"Hey Honda, Yugi's still trying to teach me Duel Monsters."

An odd look passed across Honda's face before saying, "Drool Monsters?"

Jounouchi's head dropped eyes firing in slight irritation, if he had any one pet peeve it was when he had to repeat himself for someone else to understand him. He was always loud enough to make sure EVERYONE could hear him so it ticked him off when people got what he said wrong or asked for him to repeat what he said. Shoving Honda off and tripping him so that he would fall on the floor. "No Duel Monsters you nim-rod." Picking himself up Honda stuck his tongue out at Jounouchi only getting him to snap his teeth in Honda's direction, making Honda close his mouth quickly. Jounouchi half listened when Anzu started to give a lecture about Duel Monsters to Honda, only for Honda to zone out and get a faraway look two sentences in. Jounouchi could feel himself twitching in irritation as Anzu continued to give complements to Yugi about how good he was and rag on how bad he was.

Though he couldn't get mad at Yugi for that because he knew two things, one his little buddy had learnt the game in-depth just for him, two he would never learn the game so well just to show him up he was to innocent to think of things like that, three the only reason he tries to beat Jounouchi every game is because the little bugger had a large competitive streak, and Jounouchi would get pissed if he found out he was being gone easy on, and four Yugi gets very irritated when people talk bad about him. He didn't know why Yugi seemed to hero worship him and had tried to discourage it he could only guess between two things either it was because he was Yugi's first male friend or because he had introduced him to porn (1) he really hoped it was the first one. When he did introduce Yugi to it he had thought he needed to show him a little of adult life that Anzu never could without it being very odd, because if Anzu continued to coddle him for the rest of his life he would never be able to live like a normal person.

Playing his card quickly Yugi smiled in his adorable way saying, "That was a good move Jounouchi-kun! But I nullify it with this spell card and use my monster to destroy all your life points.", Amethyst eyes stared up at him happily but a bit concerned to see if his strong friend would get angry that he had won for the sixth time in a row this morning only to see the shaggy blond hair shake in disappointment and before tossing his cards up into the air in exasperation.

Leaning back in a slightly annoyed manner but Yugi could tell it wasn't at him but at his lack of skills brought up his white shirt slightly showing the tanned and toned skin underneath. Jounouchi-kun really was beautiful he observed silently blushing a bit at the statement due to the fact that he was a boy and he knew that even if he turned out to be homosexual Jounouchi-kun liked girls. Saddened by the thought Yugi could feel the lusty stares from Jounouchi-kun's fan club hungrily devouring the small strip of skin. He wanted to stand up and yell at them that Jounouchi-kun was not a piece of meat. Yugi had been happy when Jounouchi had asked him to help him play Duel Monsters one because he would be able to play a game with his best friend, and two is Jounouchi-kun seemed nerdy then his fan club would abate. But annoyingly it didn't and now he had to think off all ways possible to out cute any of his fan girls to make sure Jounouchi-kun would even think about them. 'If they want Jounouchi-kun they have to go through me!...and Ryou.' Yugi thought pouting slightly. Glancing up at Ryou, who had seen the flash of skin as well, was now smiling creepily at Jounouchi's fangirls scaring them out of the room. "Tarts." He heard Ryou whisper. Yugi completely agreed Jounouchi-kun was THERES…friend.

Zoning back in enough to hear Honda ragging on Jounouchi's ability to play. Yugi protested, "No! It's because I have better cards that I'm so good." He stammered out. "And Grandpa owns a game shop so I get first dibs on all the best cards."

Jounouchi opened up one eye from his relaxed position in the chair before thinking back to the time he ran over to Yugi's house to give back the last piece of the Millennium Puzzle vaguely remembering that the house was a game shop called 'Kame Game Shop'. Speaking of the Millennium Puzzle Jounouchi stared down at the hand he now always wore a glove over. Even without the glove on he could still fell the slight razed edges of where the burn scar the last puzzle piece gave him. When Yugi had come in the next day to school with the Puzzle he had asked him if it seemed to give off any strange heat but Yugi had shook his head no, even though Jounouchi had been told it was safe he still refused to touch the puzzle. He was used to having all his wounds healed within a day or an hour even if they were light but to have a very minor burn scar him permanently without it being bone deep or life threatening it confused him. A light wisp of something tickled at the back of his mind, forming into a memory images flashed behind his one closed eye of something but when he tried to grab it to see it more clearly it seemed to shatter.

Wanting to growl in annoyance Jounouchi opened both eyes and smiled brilliantly at Yugi. "Well what are we waiting for lets go to your game shop and maybe I can get some pointers." Yugi seemed to brighten up from his earlier sour mood and smiled back making his purple eyes glow. "Yeah maybe Grandpa would be willing to show us his super rare card!" Jounouchi blinked 'super rare card?' shrugging it off he looked over at an apologetic Ryou. "Sorry guys I have to go home today my Dad is coming back from Egypt today and brought me a souvenir (2)." Everyone nodded understanding why he couldn't come before piling out of the room and heading for Yugi's house.

…With Kaiba…

'Rare card?'(3) 'Could they have found the card that I have been searching for? It's most likely a false lead and it'll probably end up in a dead end. I mean what are the odds that such a card ends up with a no name loser card store. Though stranger things have happened…but then again if they did have such a card why would they not sell, obviously they would and if it was the card I was searching for I would know about it. Then it can't be it can it? Unless they know the worth and are only telling select people to tease the market so others will come to their shop just to see if the story is true.' Blue eyes narrowed in concentration perfect brown hair not moving an inch. 'Are they really that smart or am I making up things just to give them credit? Only one way to find out.' Placing his book down carefully Kaiba pulled out his phone pressing a number on his speed dial, "Rolan bring out the limo we're making a pit stop today." The quiet "Yes sir" on the other end of the line was heard before the end tone. Swiftly walking out the door Kaiba smirked, "If they do have the card it will be mine."

…Back to Jounouchi and friends…

Jounouchi thought completely zoned out from the rest of the group. Thinking about random things he observed one of them being a sleek black limo that was following them. He didn't who it was or what they wanted but he was ready just in case. When the Game Shop finally came into view he rushed the group into the shop, to them he may have looked impatient, but in reality he wanted to get away from the stalking vehicle. Turning he saw Yugi beg jokingly to his Grandpa to see his rare card, before the elder Muuto thought for a moment before laughing.

"Of course I'll let you see it you're all great friends." Old purple eyes turned to look at honey colored ones winking making Jounouchi uncomfortable with the knowledge in those eyes. "Now this is a super rare card I don't take it out often and never let it leave my hand. It is the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" With a flourish he pulled out the rare card and allowed the group to oh and ah over it. Jounouchi shivered a sense of dread and warmth battled in his stomach. Images of a giant sized version of the dragon in the card raining down destruction on fields and cities a man with stunning blue eyes riding atop it, but he could also feel security when he saw the beast. Once again trying to grasp onto the memory or hallucination he did not know which only for it to slip away and fade. 'Why dang it!' he thought furiously. At this point ever since Yugi had become his friend his memories seemed to be coming back but most were just boring things, and they were coming back at such a slow pace he couldn't help but feel frustrated.

Honda plucked up the card staring at it curiously, "Doesn't look so special to me."

Grandpa gasped before grabbing the card back and holding it close to his side. "This card is very limited edition there are only four of them in the whole world."

Honda shrugged off the information that he had just been holding such a valuable card before going to stare at a game that had to deal with a stick and some dice. Looking back to Grandpa Jounouchi smiled, "Well Yugi said you could help me with setting up my deck so it would be more even so would you?" The elder man smiled before starting to pull out his trading rack of cards when the bell over the door rang. Smiling happily at his would be customer he asked, "Can I help you?"

Jounouchi turned to look at the new person freezing he could feel something in the back of his mind growl at the new arrival words danced across his mind like the whispering in the wind there but never heard but he could make out this. "_Be wary…great evil…beware._" Trusting the instinct he bent slightly to get into a more fighting stance before observing the newcomer. He was obviously of the richer variety of humans his uniform was neatly pressed and looked brand new. Hair combed till it shown and not strand out of place cold blue eyes stared at them in a kind of mocking that put his teeth on edge. This man may be beautiful but Jounouchi could tell he was an arrogant snob. And the tall boy taller than him next words proved it. "I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't." The deep rasp of the voice made Jounouchi's spine quiver before he shook it off and buried the odd emotion under anger at the rich boy's arrogance.

"Seto Kaiba-kun." Yugi squeaked. Jounouchi glanced down at his trembling friend who was staring at the blue eyed boy now named Kaiba. Growling low in his throat almost inaudibly Jounouchi moved to stand in front of Yugi to protect him even if it was nothing but Kaiba's stare. "Kaiba?" Jounouchi murmured. The boy seemed to have heard his growl or his lightly murmured name because those shocking eyes jumped to him, images flashed through his mind of similar eyes staring at him but in a much different way making him woozy, shaking it off he stared back. "Doesn't he own some gigantic company whys he down here?" Honda questioned. Kaiba turned his head back to Grandpa dismissing the other occupants in the room like they were nothing but flies to him. 'And that might be exactly how he thinks.' Jounouchi thought bitterly.

"Though it's none of your business I came to see this rare card you seem to be in possession of." Jounouchi blinked, 'Well before I completely catorgorize him I at least need to give him the benefit of the doubt, that is rule seven.'

_Rule Seven, Never judge a book by its cover it could be something you never expected and could get you killed._ This rule had saved him many times.

Stepping forward he smiled at Kaiba even though that instinct was screaming at him to get away and not get any closer he ignored it and continued on. "Well if you're interested in Duel Monsters maybe someday in class we could get together and play together." Kaiba's next words pissed him far beyond his normal bounds. "I would have more trouble playing solitaire than you blonde; I am the number one duelist in the world. You wouldn't last two minutes against me." Jounouchi gritted his teeth together, 'So he's a bragger is he?' Smirking, a smile that showed the amount of killing intent he felt in that moment sarcasm rose up in his normal self-defense mechanism, "I'm just shaking in my boots maybe you want to settle this with fists instead of cards." He saw the rich boy take a slight double take as he looked at him.

Kaiba stared curiously at the blond that was not backing down in any way to his presence. When he had first entered the store he had expected to be treated as he is normally treated with awe and respect. He had gotten the awe from the smaller boy and girl but the two other boys just looked at him. At first glance he had dismissed them as common thugs not to be worried about if they knew his reputation or not. But when he heard the light growling and confused stare of the blond as he uttered his name he had felt a light thump in his chest, before watching the blond slide almost inconspicuously in front of the tri-haired teen. 'Protecting him?' he thought. His curiosity had raised at the blonds actions until they plummeted in disgust when he put on a fake smile and tried to play nice with him. 'Pfeh, he's just a lackey that wants me for my money like everyone else.' Snubbing him quickly so he wouldn't get any ideas he watched the mask crack into irritation before sarcasm dripped from the blond's mouth like poison. The heated glare from honey colored eyes and the smirk made him stare at the blond a little longer. The smaller teen pushed his away out from behind the blond and started to placate him. Before the blond looked up at him stubbornly, "Yugi, he's asking for it." 'You're here to look at the card…' his subconscious reminded him. Walking forward he watched as the blond moved away from him not to give him respect but seemingly not wanting to touch him. Shaking it off he turned to the old man eyes staring in shock that the old man actually had the card he wanted so bad.

Jounouchi glared at the brunette's head as he was ignored and the teen quickly strutted towards Grandpa's desk. He almost wanted to demand that Grandpa force Kaiba to leave due to his rudeness when he said, "A card of this power ended up in a dump like this." He could feel himself twitching as rage started to build up in his mind when the blue eyed jerk continued to try to coerce Grandpa into giving him the card even though he had plainly said, "No." 'Can rich people not hear unless someone said something they want to hear?' he thought furiously. Watching Kaiba rant that they hadn't seen the last of him and stormed out of the shop. 'We have if I have anything to say about it.' A darker portion of his mind dark laughs of glee at the thought of violence echoed through his head.

Jounouchi couldn't sleep well that night tossing and turning thinking about what could happen if Kaiba decided to get ugly about not getting the card. Finally giving up he jumped out of bed and changed before packing his bag filled with completely homework and ran out of the house, knowing that when his father didn't see him in the morning he was going to get an extra hard beating when he got home but was more worried for his friend, stopping at Yugi's house he sat down not even 12 o' clock and prepared for his stake out and made it look like in the morning he had just decided to pick up Yugi like he did sometimes. Staring into the shadows he prepared for a long night ahead of him.

In the morning when he sat at his desk at school and nothing had happened he sighed, 'Looks like the rich boy was bluffing. Though it's making me itchy that he's not here right now.' Glancing over at the seat he had learned was Kaiba's due to the amount of love letters piled on top of it his frown deepened.

_Sleep_

Sleep sounded like a good idea; maybe he could take a nap between periods. Closing his eyes Jounouchi sleep unaware of the violence about to take place.

…At the Game Shop…

Two thugs walked towards the Game Shop intent on doing their master's bidding unaware of the dark figure following them. Passing a dark alley one thug was pulled in as he cried out, the other willingly followed like a stupid mouse after its cheese. The first thug was spun around and slammed into the wall violently red eyes burned with ill intent, a dark smile on the youth's face. "Now where would you be going dressed like that~" The thug arrogantly sneered at the man holding him against the wall. "Why would I tell you?" "Because the red eyed man purred, "You want to live a bit longer." Smirk growing wider as the other thug swung his gun at the man's head, though it was like the crimson eyed man had eyes in the back of his head dodging out of the way easily and turning to see both the thugs, who now had guns pulled out and pointed at him. Tilting his head the tall man just laughed before running forward quickly and kicking the guns out of the mans' hands kicking them away before dodging a punch. Having better things to do the crimson eyed man pushed the men roughly into the ground pulling out his own weapon to point threateningly at the men. Both men shook as the long and sharp weapon grazed their necks with the promise of death and pain. (4)

"I assure you this hurts more than a gun if used correctly. Now tell me what you know." As the thugs nodded quickly the red eyed youth used the weapon like a cane leaning against it. "We were hired by Kaiba to get that card from the old man in the game shop." Looking at the other thug he nodded quickly. Deciding they were telling him the truth the youth smiled at them evilly, "Well why don't you tell Kaiba that he'll have to try a different method then this, hmmmm?" The thugs nodded before running off. Pulling out their phones they contacted their boss and told him the news. "What do you mean you failed you half-witts. I don't care who threatened you with what go get that card and if you're that scared use a different method." Before hearing the final dial tone in their phones. Turning back to the Game Shop they gazed around carefully looking for the crimson eyed person carefully walking into the game shop and asked the old man to come with them because Kaiba asked it. Surprisingly the old man looked irritated before following them easily, even more was the fact that they didn't see the evilly smiling youth again.

Unknown to them that they youth they were looking for was sitting on top of the Game Shop staring irritated down at the scene. "If the old man wants to go with them there is not much I can do about it, old fool." Turning away in exasperation for wasting his time he quickly slipped into the shadows and faded away.

Later that day when Yugi got home with Jounouchi and the gang Jounouchi had a bad feeling. It started with seeing two guns lying in the alley way and ended with the fact that the Game Shop's door was unlocked. "Why would he leave the door unlocked if he went out it's like asking to be robbed." Honda nodded agreeing staring around the shop in distrustfully. Jounouchi watched as Yugi answered the phone before becoming pale, and running out of the shop. Following after him Jounouchi and the rest of the game screamed at him, "What's the matter?!" Being in better shape than anyone in the group Honda close behind him they caught up to Yugi's panicked running where he explained what was going on. Jounouchi felt rage surrounds his whole being. 'Che, and I thought I could protect them drat!' He could feel his anger pacing like a raged beast at the fact the Yugi's Grandpa was hurt.

Running into the Kaiba Corp office and rode down words into a secret underground dueling ring. Jounouchi almost snarled seeing Yugi's frail Grandpa on the ground in pain and Yugi's pained expression purple eyes watering in pain. '_No he is meant to be protected!_' he thought viciously. Glaring not even really being able to hear but still being able to tell that Kaiba was jeering at Yugi in his victory, and he did snarl in rage when Kaiba ripped up Grandpa's favorite card. His body moving before he could even think about it. Violence radiating from all points of his core knuckles cracking in preparation to hit the rich boy as hard as he could.

Small hands that wouldn't even have a chance at stopping him at a normal time made him freeze due to their owner. Teary lavender eyes froze him where he stood before the small sweet voice of his friend forced him to stop with their words. "Jounouchi-kun I have to do this I have to show Kaiba-kun what my Grandpa tried to show him, the Heart of the Cards." Nodding in understanding Jounouchi grabbed his small friend in a hug raising his head to spit fire with his hatred at the blue eyed ball of arrogance. They stared back at him in curiosity and seemed he seemed to smirk even more at his stare, Jounouchi could almost swore he heard the word, "Interesting.", leave Kaiba's mouth. Standing up Jounouchi said, "We'll take care of your Grandpa ok?" before helping the other two carefully move the old man into the elevator. "You just win against that a hole, alright?!" Yugi nodded and Kaiba frowned at how the blond ignored him after that one hateful glare while he was hugging the squirt.

Deciding he would be generous and battle the chibi even though his Grandpa had failed so easily. He was surprised that the blond came back in after their first round into the room. He was also clutching his one gloved hand in pain as he stared into the room looking towards his friend more specifically the pendant. 'Does the pendant cause the pain in his hand? If it does how does it do it and how does the squirt activate it. I can already tell that I am winning this duel anyway so how about I mess with that entertaining blond a bit and steal whatever in that necklace makes him scowl in pain. After all with his background nothing should make him cringe in pain unless it is something really bad. After the blond had interested him the day before he had looked him up so he knew everything though everything was not a lot he knew he was born in America and that his mom and dad were divorced and that he had a slight criminal record and he was suspected for a large amount of things that could never be pinned on him.

Deciding to up the stakes Kaiba said mockingly to get the blond's attention away from the tri-haired teen. "Well this is boring so how about we up the stakes if you win you can do one thing you wish to me if I win I get that necklace." The look of pain that crossed the tri-haired boys face was good but the utter look of horror on the blonds was delicious. 'Oh yes I most defiantly must get that pendant now if it makes you look like that Jounouchi-chan~' he thought wickedly. Some of his inner glee must have showed on his face and looked like a mocking smirk because Yugi straightened and yelled about how he would mind crush him when he won. 'Yeah right what's a mind crush anyway?'

"So you except?"

"**Yes"**

"Good~"

Playing a card that allowed him to summon all three Blue Eyes White Dragons onto the field in one turn he leaned against the console and snickered. "Your move Yugi."

Jounouchi stared in fear at what was about to happen. One his friend was about to be crushed smashing the small amount of confidence he had gained, two Kaiba would be in possession of an item that seemed to cause him great amounts of time at random intervals like right now and earlier at school which had woken him up from his nap. 'If Kaiba gets ahold of that and learns how to use it with the way I've been egging him on he'll try and kill me.' Even now sharp jolts of electricity where racing up from the burn on his hand causing great amounts of pain so that he got dizzy and wanted to pass out from it.

Pushing it off he stared at his friend concentrating whispering, "You can do it Yug'"

A sharp flash of pain erupted from his puzzle piece shaped scar racing up his arm and making him fall to his knees in pain when he saw his friend get a confident gleam in his eye and play the most difficult card in the game. "Exodia" Though even when the card was destroying his Blue Eyes Jounouchi glanced over at Kaiba holding onto his hand he saw that those ice cold eyes were staring at him.

Jounouchi could hear his friend talking though he sounded slightly off he could not take his eyes from Kaiba and he seemed to have the same problem.

"**You play only for power and to hurt others Kaiba, if you put your heart into the cards they will never fail you."**

Finally blue eyes dragged themselves away from golden to stare into red ones with a raised brow that said, "Seriously you can't be serious."

"**If you truly want to know how I beat you and doing what I told you what I would I shall mind crush you. OPEN UP YOUR MIND, MIND CRUSH!"**

Jounouchi saw as Kaiba's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell to his knees and fainted. The hissing spitting part of him that had screamed beware he seemed to vanish in the same instant Yugi yelled, "Mind Crush." Now he only felt that he should go to the taller boy and see if he was ok. 'Why though he just hurt my friend. I should feel nothing but hate.' Turning away from the thoughts that made him uncomfortable he ran over to his friend to congratulate him.

…On a far off island…

"Sir Pegasus, Seto Kaiba has been defeated in a duel by someone name Yugi."

A quite but thoughtful hum was heard as a long silver haired man took a sip of his red wine the same color of his two piece, a brown eye twinkled in excitement while another more sinister gold one flashed in the light.

…At Jounouchi's Home…

Golden eyes stared glazed at the ceiling he couldn't even move he knew his father would hurt him worse than normal for skipping out this morning but to go this far… Feeling an itch crawl up his arm from his scar he stared at it, it wasn't the painful sear that he got when he was around the puzzle it was just a quite itch like a warning. 'What could it mean?' he thought vaguely before familiar and comforting darkness crept up to great him.

* * *

What is in store for our blond hero. Who is the crimson eyed man? Why does Yugi act different during duels? Why is Kaiba so interested in Jounouchi? What is his scar have to do with the other items and why does it react so violently to the puzzle? Will Jounouchi ever regain his memory and who gave him all the rules he follows? Answer will be told and secrets will be revealed later in Another Side of the Story.

* * *

**A/N: So a little bit of Yugi and Ryou jealously going on Honda Jounouchi bro bonding and a mystery person who do you think he is?**

**So yeah this chapter is completely based off the first episode of the anime because it's not in the Season 1 manga and I couldn't find the Season 0 manga to type about Death T. I hope you all liked it anyway. Also 6,681 words isn't that cool?**

**Clarifications:**

**No seriously if you've ever read the Season 0 manga Jounouchi and Yugi talk about porn all the time.**

**Who wants to guess what the souvenir was?**

**What are you a trained dog to jump whenever you hear that sentence? And you call Jounouchi a dog. *Rolls eyes***

**What do you think the weapon is?**

**A/N: Notes about the Manga/Anime: I was going to skip most of the middle part of the season 0 manga and just skip to the duel with Kaiba in Death T but…the site I use for manga only had it up to the Bakura chapters and so I couldn't do the Death T ark and so I'm just skipping to the season 1 manga/anime.**

**Please Review and give me feedback!**


	3. New Items: Past Memories

**A/N: Hello everyone this is this month's update. It is the second which seems to be my updating week for this story that way I have the rest of the month to write more chapters of my two stories. Some many plot bunnies for other stories, all have been written down in my idea notebook!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Franchise, I am only borrowing the characters for my fan fiction and do not make any money off of it.**

**Warnings: Mentions of gang related activities (Ok, this is probably going to be in every single warning due to the fact that this fan fic delves into Jounouchi and his past so yeah the gang is gonna show up, slight abuse, some violence. This is also boy x boy, yaoi, male x male or anything else you want to call it. Though it might take a while to get to that point so just to let 'cha no.**

**A/N: On with the story!**

* * *

**Battle 3: New Items/**_Past Memories_

* * *

Jounouchi tapped impatiently at his desk as he stared bored at the clock. As usual he had woken long before the sun had risen to start his chores to appease his father. Standing up he was relieved that even though the beating had been brutal his ability he seemed to have since he was a child to heal faster than any else ever could hope to heal still affecting him. When he had gotten the scar from the Millennium Puzzle he had feared that his ability was finally going away scaring him. He needed that ability it was the only thing that kept him moving without it he probably would have become a cripple long ago.

Standing swiftly Jounouchi stripped off his cloths from yesterday having been to tired and weary to bother in taking them off. Mind already active he straightened out his sheets not liking when his room was messy but having to deal with it most of the time due to his father ransacking his room to look for money so he liked to keep it clean whenever he could. Turning he opened his pint-sized closet and pulled out his only other school uniform, he had to switch between the two pair constantly because he didn't have any others, also spending a large amount of his money to get his school outfit cleaned so that even though he knew he was filth no one could accuse him of smelling like it. Even if it was nothing but a small reprieve from the fact that he knew he should just accept he was trash the clean smell of his uniforms gave the brief illusion that he was just a normal boy even if it was no longer than a moment and just a second of happiness. Such seconds should always be cherished.

Changing into the uniform he picked up his already packed back pack with all his finished and checked homework, the teacher could all think he was a bum but his scores proved them wrong. His homeroom teacher the only person that seemed to like him was the one who graded all of his and Honda's work, she being the only teacher that took the time to do so, the other teachers just scoff and asked why they should take the time to look over work from heathens. He had made sure that when the grades got put up onto the boards to publically show off or humiliate the kids that his teacher put his work down under a false name so that he would get any flak for being brains and brawns.

_Rule Eight, Better to play the fool and everyone underestimate you than to be the king and everyone target you._

He smiled at the rule, 'It was true,' he thought, 'I should probably write an article about these rules they could really help some people.'

Dropping his backpack next to the door he went into the breakfast nook and started to fix his dad and himself breakfast and lunch. Packing up the lunches quickly Jounouchi stared at the eggs quietly to make sure they didn't burn. Once done he placed them in the microwave with a side of toast because it was any one's guess as to when his dad would wake up. Glancing at the clock he saw it was only 5:30. 'School doesn't start till 8' he thought.

Surveying the room he sighed in disappointment his father had trashed the room after trashing him giving him more to clean up. Slowly and methodically cleaning up the mess he left the stains on both the furniture and the floor for when he could use the vacuum. He didn't want to chance waking up his father before he was ready to wake up. Shivering at the reminder of the last time he had done so he placed a memo on the table as to where his dad's lunch and breakfast was a long with a bottle of water for his hangover. Quietly picking up his backpack, years of practice making him as silent as the fabled ninja, he opened the door and slowly crept out of the house only daring to sigh in relief when he was blocks away that he had not had to deal with his father this morning.

Whistling a jaunty tune he practically skipped down the side walk making himself jog lightly to help keep himself in shape towards school. Leading himself to his current predicament, boredom.

Lightly pressing his head against the table he stared unseeingly at the window before movement on the other side of the glass caught his eye. A small male robin puffed it's chest out mightly to a male blue jay in an attempt to impress the other bird. The blue bird ignored the smaller red bird causing it to droop in sadness before bouncing back up. Swooping out of sight quickly the Blue Jay turned around quickly looking for the Robin in a panic its refusal of the red bird forgotten in the face of the bird's departure.

'Miss him now don't cha' birdie? Don't worry if he wanted to impress you so much he'll be back…' he thought smiling.

And not a moment later the blood red breasted robin came soaring back in a bright blue, just as vibrant as the Blue Jay himself, Morning Glory clasped in his beak. Raising his head towards the Blue Jay who seemed to be eyeing the flower in baffled confusion tilted his head before delicately taking the flower and lowering his head as if embarrassed that he didn't have a flower to present. The Robin joyful that his companion accepted his token of affection seemed to grow to twice his size in pride before twittering happily at the Blue Jay. The blue bird seemed to think for a moment before twittering his agreement making the Robin cry joyfully before flying off together the Blue Morning Glory clasped safely in the Blue Bird's beak.

Sighing in happiness his head resting on his elbows as he observed the scene he wasn't prepared for the thing that happened next.

"You're a romantic aren't you?" A soft voice asked close to his head.

Eyes dilating in fear that someone was so close to him without his notice Jounouchi before he could even register the movement swung his arm around clasping his would be attacker by the throat before swing around to deliver a brutal punch to the face when golden eyes met the scared deep blue of Yugi's friend Anzu it took a few moments for his conscience mind to catch up with his instinctive one. When it did he immediately released the scared girl and backed away quickly.

"Sorry." He mumbled quietly glancing down at the gloved hand that had gripped Anzu's throat.

Blue eyes stared back at him as a delicate hand rubbed her throat in a thoughtful manner. Large eyes looked at the blond haired boy stare down at his hand as if it was a traitor. She had seen the boy's peaceful scene as he watched the birds flirt with each other and his sigh of happiness when the red had been accepted by the blue. Trying to make conversation she had commented on it startling the boy. Staring into his eyes she had seen the terror her silent approach had placed into him and then his sadness that he thought he had hurt her. This boy had more to him then she had originally thought. Not just a brainless fool…

'Maybe we can be friends.'

Jounouchi glanced up at the girl expected harsh glares and screamed threats of going to the teachers for attacking her. But what he actually saw made him flinch even more than any glare ever could. The quiet acceptance in those ocean blue eyes made the small boy inside him want to flinch and run away. Reaching out a hand Anzu slowly placed it on Jounouchi's shoulder giving him ample time to understand her intention.

Quietly as if afraid to break the quiet stiffness in the air she said, "I know we got off on the wrong foot but maybe we could try again. There's obviously more to you than I gave you credit for and I think there's more to me than you think as well."

Golden eyes stared into Anzu's with curiosity, interest, and a slight spark of happiness. 'Maybe I was too quick to assume about her. Maybe I might be able to make a new friend?' he thought.

And that is what they did for the rest of the morning before school started before kids piled into the school to waste away their day before they could leave again. The two fighters just talked and joked around and discussed things with each other about each other's lives not delving too deep for the tintive beginning of their friendship. By the time the rest of the gang showed up the two had connected in such a way that Jounouchi felt he had another sister. The thought filled him with happiness and pride that he was finally starting to connect with others. Finally starting to be normal.

Yugi showed up about ten minutes before class would start and saw his two best friends, Anzu and Jounouchi, sitting next each other and chatting away Ryou making occasional comments, this made him happy that his two friends were finally getting along. He had felt the kind of wariness the two felt for each other and was glad they had gotten over it.

Waving to them enthusiastically he walked over to them and started to discuss his latest cards when Anzu got a sneaky expression on her face.

"Hey Jounouchi~" she said in a sweet voice.

Looking at her suspiciously he answered, "Ya?"

"Want to duel me?" Anzu asked batting her eye lashes at him.

Now Jounouchi defiantly knew something was up, causing him to raise an eyebrow at the sweet face, "Now why would I want to do that?"

Anzu's face seemed to light up evilly. "Afraid to lose to a girl?"

Jounouchi laughed, "Nope, but I'd first have to find a girl to play."

Anzu frowned kicking his shin smiling smugly when he flinched, "Now you have to duel me for that rude remark Jounouchi~"

"If I have to…" Jounouchi sighed dramatically.

Half way through his last comment Honda came in and immediately moved over to their small group to watch the upcoming duel.

"Jou you do know it's your move right?" Honda asked drawly

Jounouchi stared at him irritated, "Yes I know that!" He spat it was far into the duel where Anzu was whipping his butt and he had been staring at his cards for a while.

"Well if you know that why aren't you doing anything?!" Honda asked completely bored.

Turning his nose up slightly and in his best impression of a British person Jounouchi replied, "If you must know you uncultured swine and a thoughtfully plotting out my next move against this aggravating opponent."

The whole reply made Ryou, Yugi, and Anzu giggle at Jounouchi's nonsense. Making Honda stare at him with a smirk.

"Really it just looks like your plotting how best to get your butt kicked."

Jounouchi's eyebrow twitched before he placed down a monster card to attack Anzu's face down card. Anzu hummed before placing down 'The Breath of Light' card. Jounouchi stared at it confused for a moment before turning to Yugi. Yugi stared up at him with an adorable smile and explained that the card was designed to destroy rock monsters, like his own, and use the monster's attack points to take out his life points.

Jounouchi blinked as he saw from his little notepad with his life point score that the spell card had wiped out all his life points. Sighing he shook his head before placing down his cards, 'I really don't get cards like that. And the fields ugggg….' He thought miserably.

Yugi patted his shoulder, "You'll get better."

"Yeah don't worry mate!" Ryou added smiling.

"Though you do suck." Honda had to add his two cents into the conversation.

Jounouchi slumped and didn't see the three pairs of glaring eyes at Honda. Honda waved helplessly at Anzu, Yugi, and Ryou as they glared at him.

* * *

The bell rung alerting the occupants of the school to the fact that it was free time Jounouchi stood up and moped dragged himself out of the room with a halfhearted goodbye. After watching their friend leave sadly the two smaller boys and the strong girl turned back around to glare at Honda some more.

"Hey I'm sorry he's bad!"

"Yeah but he's trying." Anzu said smiling at the fact that she could now get past her prejudice and see the kind boy underneath the rough exterior.

"Yeah! If Jounouchi-kun keeps trying he'll be awesome!" Yugi complemented happily.

Ryou about to add a comment about Jounouchi's progress froze when he heard the high pitched giggling of the group of people he and Yugi had come to hate. The fan girls…

Tapping Yugi's shoulder to get his attention he nodded slightly over at the giggling group of girls as they stared out the window and pointed at something below. Anzu looked at her two small male friends as they suddenly became silent and stared at them questioningly. Noticing the glance Ryou shook his head before sneaking across the room to stare out the window with the girls. Seeing the object of their obvious drooling caused him to grow an annoyed tick. Half of him wanted to strangle the girls for being so irritating and an annoyance to Jounouchi-kun the other part knew it was probably a bad idea. Though the other part of him was making a very good suggestion on where they could hide the bodies.

Yugi bored with waiting for Ryou to come back and tell him why the girls were giggling strolled slowly towards Ryou who had a far off and slightly scary smile on his face. Peeking out the window a small huff of anger left his throat. 'How dare these girls stare at Jounouchi-kun doing his work out like he's a piece of meat!' he thought angrily. The small purple eyed scowl that graced the small boy made him look of utmost adorable instead of intimidating. Grabbing Ryou by the shoulder sleeve and marching back over to Anzu the albino stuck in wonderland of a la la land still before angrily announcing. "We have to do something!"

"Do what?" They asked

"We have to do something about those fan girls they are looking at Jounouchi-kun like he's a prime steak and they haven't eaten in months!"

Anzu being a taller girl for her age stood up and was able to see over the girls and confirm the fact that they were watching her new friend as Yugi described. Snorting Anzu scowled at them before yelling, "Don't you prisses have something better to do like fix your make up after all, all that drool can do horrible things to your lip stick." Almost in simultaneous unison each of the pack of fan girls pulled out a mirror to check themselves and screeched an ear splitting noise of pain when they saw the yes indeed their lip stick was ruined before running out of the class room to fix it.

Yugi looked up at the brunette with a sense of awe he and Ryou were never able to chase off Jounouchi's admires as quickly as that most of the time they had to break the girls' hearts by publically out cuteing them whenever they got to close to Jounouchi-kun though it's not like it actually affected them when they did. "Anzu-chan you are amazing."

Anzu smiled arrogantly before turning up her nose, "Of course no one looks at my friends like that as if they want to take their purity (1)."

The other two boys nodded sagely as one brunette looked at them as if they were mad. "You all can't be serious?" Honda asked.

The three friends turned back to him with dead serious faces. "Of course we are." The said together. "Now," Anzu continued seriously, "If we're going to be Jounouchi's Innocence Protection Squad or JIPS for short we need a plan to make sure those hyena's in make-up don't get anywhere close to him."

Honda shook his head not even trying to stop his new wacky friends from plotting on how best to help Jounouchi with his fan-girl problem so that they could protect his 'innocence'. The male brunette wanted to shake his head sadly at the concept. His friend showed no interest in any of the girls for a reason and not because he was innocent, no, it was because his friend his scarred emotionally from a women's abuse and is unwilling to get near others because of it. The innocence that they believe he has so much of or being dense which ever they prefer; Jounouchi hasn't had for a very long time. 'How could he after _THAT WOMEN_ hurt him so horribly and forced him to lead the life he had.' Honda thought viciously.

When that awful accuse for mother that gave birth to Jounouchi left him alone and took the only person that Jounouchi really cared for with her and left him to be abused and hurt without even looking back… Honda grit his teeth in fury hands clenching as he tried to rein in his temper over what that women had done to his friend. 'She knew…' he thought anger mounting, 'she knew the monster she was leaving her son with, but left him anyway because she feared he would end up like him and looked like him. Weak!' Honda's eyes narrowed as his minds thought started to drown into a pit of revenge for the only person other than one other who was willing to actually help him in a time when he was desperate just to survive.

"Honda-kun…Honda-kun! HONDA-KUN!"

Brown eyes blinked before focusing on similar brown eyes of Ryou. "Yes? Ryou?"

"Could you help us terrorize some fan-girls? Yugi's going to be on guard by being with Jounouchi-kun since he isn't really scary. But Anzu and I are going to go scare the fan-girls. Would you like to come?"

Honda thought for a moment. Though the others didn't know Jou's past like he did they were still willing to try and protect what little innocence and heart the Jou had left so he saw no problem working with them. Plus it is irritating that the girls are going after Jou in such a manner when he's obviously not interested…maybe we should pretend to be into each other again…

Standing up slowly Honda shoved his hands in his pockets before nodding towards Ryou and grinning. "Yeah I could go for scaring some fan-girls." Looking over at Anzu since Yugi had already left, both Ryou and her were smiling as if possessed by imps.

Honda smiled as he watched them scurry out of the room to ambush the fan-girls. 'Jou you always seem to find the people who are willing to stay by your side with absolute loyalty. Just as you would do for them…you lucky dog.'

* * *

…With Yugi and Jounouchi…

* * *

"Honda's right…I couldn't win at Duel Monster to save my life…" Sighing in irritation that he was so pathetic at something he felt he should be better at Jounouchi stared at the trees next to the school where he had gotten ambushed by Ushio and his goons and then had Yugi protect him. A soft smile worked its way onto his face as he stared dazed at the spot mind moving elsewhere before a soft and cheerful voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Jounouchi-kun are you ok?"

Honey colored eyes blinked quickly before looking over at his shorter friend purple eyes shining up at him with the curious gleam of a child. Patting the spikey hair that was surprisingly soft showing that his friend's hair defied gravity naturally instead of using a gel of some sort to stand up, Yugi immediately batted away his hand and blushed before pouting up at Jounouchi as he leaned against the pull up bars.

Mumbling something Yugi grabbed the shortest bar and attempted to pull himself up so that he could sit on it. Attempted being the operative word, sweating Yugi frowned at the bar eyebrows mushed together glaring at the bar. Laughing lightly Jounouchi picked up Yugi carefully by the waist and set him back on the pull-up bar before going back to leaning on his own. In their new positions they two teenage boys were face to face level and Jounouchi could clearly see the tomato red blush his friend sported from being so easily picked up.

Finally getting over his embarrassment Yugi asked again, "Are you okay Jounouchi-kun?"

The golden haired boy snorted before looking at his friend in mock condensation. "Really Yug you have to ask. I couldn't beat Anzu at all this morning no matter how hard I tried and she started playing Duel Monsters after me. So either magically make me better or give me some pointers on what I'm doing that is causing me to fail so badly."

Yugi about to protest that his friend wasn't bad closed his mouth when he saw a blond eyebrow go up in obvious amusement. Grumbling to himself Yugi presented his hand where Jounouchi handed over his deck so he could look through it. Scanning the cards quickly Yugi's head tilted further and further in confusion before handing the deck back.

"Well it makes sense that you're losing…"

Jounouchi's head drooped in depression for a moment before looking back up at Yugi. "Thanks for the vote of confidence there Yug."

Yugi shook his violet head quickly, "I don't mean it that way Jounouchi-kun it's just your whole deck is full off monster cards. No one can win with just monster cards. The point of the game itself is to combine monster, spell, and trap cards or your monsters will get creamed."

Jounouchi stared down at his friend for a moment before Yugi tried to explain it a different way. "Ok how about this, say you're playing a multi-player online game. If you try to play with just straight attack warrior players with no defense or long range players to assist you, do you think you'll survive long?"

"Of course not everyone knows you need an equal balance or you'll just get destroyed by the enemy." Jounouchi said waving it off.

"Well the same concept is in Duel Monsters if you only use monster cards and no spell or trap to help your offense you'll get obliterated."

"Hmmmm, makes sense but if I can't get any spell or trap cards how am I supposed to combine the two?"

"Well you could always come to the shop so that my grandpa can help teach you and you can also trade repeat monsters you get for spells and traps."

"Cool! Is it alright if I come over after school to start training?" Jounouchi said eagerly he never was one to shy away from tough work once he decided on something he wanted to be good at.

Yugi bounced excitedly on his feet. "Of course! Plus today is a good day since today is the finals on the Duel Monsters Tournament on Tv. It was a tournament held by the creator of Duel Monsters, Maximillion Pegasus. And Jounouchi if you want to learn Duel Monsters you'll need to know who everyone is."

Jounouchi nodded before pulling himself up from his relaxed position off the pull-up bars when the bell rang for recess to be up and started walking towards the school. Yugi blinked as he saw his friend walking off without him looking down to see that the pull-up bar was pretty far off the ground.

"Hey Jounouchi-kun a little help?" he asked squeakily.

Jounouchi turned around grinning roguishly hands crossed behind his head as he continued to walk backwards towards the school. "I was thinking Yug that you're helping me out so much with Duel Monsters that I have to stick with helping you out with becoming a man. And step one in my manly you plan is that you have to get off that bar yourself."

Yugi's eyes widened in horror. "You can't be serious?!"

A blond eyebrow went up before his grin widened. "Deadly."

Flailing his fist in outrage as the other kept him balanced Yugi screeched at the retreating blond, "Jounouchi you meanie! I hope you have dirty hallway mop water dumped on you!"

Laughter was his only answer.

* * *

A/N: No matter how good a place this would be to stop I don't stop till the chapter/or episode is completed so carry on.

* * *

Later as the gang walked to Yugi's house the owner of the house currently pouting from his messed up and dirtied uniform from hanging onto the pull-up bar for an hour before falling off. Once they reached their destination Yugi lead the rest of the group to the kitchen so that they could make snacks to eat during the finals. Jounouchi head into the shop to ask the elder Muuto for assistance.

"Mr. Muuto?" Jounouchi asked hesitantly as he glanced around the dim and empty store.

"Can I help you?" Jounouchi almost lunged forward in an instinctive reaction to someone who had snuck up behind him but held himself taught the twitching of his shoulder blades the only thing giving him away. Turning around he saw Grandpa or the elder Muuto as he liked to call him.

"Oh, yeah." Rubbing his head sheepishly Jounouchi looked down at the older man. "Umm, Yug I mean Yugi said since um you're kinda kind of the expert at Duel Monsters you might you know be willing to help me get better sorta."

Seeing the old man staring at him pensively hand cupping his chin he immediately started to fail his hands not wanting to be a bother on one of his friend's parental figures. "Oh course if ya don't wanna I totally understand. Cause if you wanna keep this totally professional I could just trade cards with the shop to try and betta my deck and…" Jounouchi wanted to hit himself he knew that as he got nervous his accent comes out and takes over his voice and it always caused him trouble whenever he needed to bluff.

_Not always._

"It's alright Jounouchi lift your head. I can see you are serious about this game if you are willing to come to me for help. Also I would very much like to teach the person that helped my grandson by finding his lost piece to the puzzle." Grandpa said softly

Jounouchi felt guilt at the kind old man's words. Lifting his head the action did nothing to illuminate the boy's face only showing the pursed lips and nothing more the eyes covered by the shadow of messily chopped bangs. "I'm not such a good person Mr. Muuto I'm the one in the first place that made Yugi loose that piece…"

A light hand was placed upon his shoulder peeking out from between his bangs so that he could see without being seen he saw the kind smile on the old man's face making his heart quiver in hope and dread that the expression was meant for him. "Yes that may be true Jounouchi but you tried your hardest to bring the piece back regardless of the health risks to yourself. It hadn't been raining anywhere the day you brought me the piece but you were soaked to the bone clutching the puzzle piece in a heavily injured hand asking for me to return it that's all that matters to me. Though I have to warn you this will be a lot of work and will test your mind and soul are you willing to go through with it?"

Shaking his head lightly Jounouchi looked at the man with a broad smirk, "I've had to work for much less enjoyable things and completed regardless of the blood and sweat it caused me. I won't back down from something like this."

Grandpa patted the young man lightly as he watched him walk out of the room his book bag thrown over on shoulder carelessly a gloved hand holding it. Thinking sadly as Grandpa watched him walk away still remembering the flinch the boy had jerked with unknowingly when he barely touched him on the shoulder and the feel of the raised edges of hidden scars under the blue jacket of his uniform, 'I'm sorry you've had to my boy I'm sorry you have.'

* * *

…Back to Jounouchi and the Gang…

* * *

Everyone was staring at the Tv waiting for it to finally get to the televised tournament. When Grandpa walked in with a box. "Yugi a package came in for you in the mail today." Yugi turned his head towards his grandfather tilting it curiously. "Who's it from Grandpa."

"That's just the thing, my boy, there's no return address."

Yugi hummed before clasping the box. Jounouchi staring at the box suspiciously since you should never open things you don't know who they're from. Placed a popcorn bowl on top of the box in Yugi's lap before saying, "The tournament's on."

Distracted they all watched as the two finalists Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood dueled it out on TV. Jounouchi watched as his little friends point got proven correct as Rex Raptor though having powerful monsters was destroyed because of Weevil's clever use of trap cards.

'These guys are good duelists but I don't get a good feeling about Weevil seems shifty to me.' He thought munching slowing due to thought.

Glancing over at his friend a new thought entered his mind. "Hey Yug why didn't you enter the contest? You would have been great and coulda defeated any of dese guys."

Yugi blushed and smiled at his friend's confidence in him. "That would have been fun Jounouchi-kun but I don't want to enter any contests unless I can battle Kaiba-kun again fair and square."

Jounouchi felt a shifting in his stomach as if he had heard those words before. An arc of heat lanced up from his burned and glove covered hand as if to remind him of something. Biting his lip Jounouchi clenched his hand trying to alleviate the pain.

"Kaiba's still in the hospital from when he was knocked unconscious during your guys' duel. I visited him yesterday up till now no change." Anzu said the light tinge of worry coating her voice. "What did you guys' do during the duel?"

Jounouchi shivered remembering the tense duel pulling his hurt hand into his lap. The overwhelming feeling that Kaiba was going to win and the one moment where hope seemed to be lost, the pain from his hand during the whole duel, the way Kaiba looked at him, and the way Yugi didn't seem to be himself talking as if he was someone else. It was odd and a bit scary he would rather not think about it if he had a choice.

"Honestly I don't remember all that much from the duel." Yugi said thoughtfully.

"Probably the adrenaline from the fight," Honda said assuredly "It'll come back to you eventually."

'How many times had he heard that from doctors?' Jounouchi thought before looking back down at his small friend trying to forget how his friend had seemed to have ruby red eyes in the duel with Kaiba instead of his normal amethyst color. 'Then again what can you remember when it's not you who is doing the fighting.'

The words seemed to strike a chord in his mind bringing forth images of dark rooms with horrid stench and tough men lying whimpering on the floor. And the smell the lingering memory of a horrible smell…a man stood in the room red eyes glowing as he stood over the bodies.

"Who are you?" Jounouchi whispered fearfully…

The figure swathed in shadows smiled red eyes seeming to grow brighter like a predator finding interest in an exotic prey.

The mouth moved but a curious buzzing filled the air the scene breaking like a mirror being shattered by a forceful blow but he couldn't move as he watched the lips of the dark figure. Watched them as the scene cracked around him slowly moving and sliding against each other.

He could have sworn the figure whispered, "_YOU."_ Before he shattered and was sucked into the black depths of the mind. Blinking as his mind finally awakened to the real world he could feel sweat coursing down his spine as his head spun around the room.

Looking over he saw that the tournament was over and that his friend had opened the mysterious package, in side was a weird gauntlet, some cards, and a video tape. Yugi took the tape and was placing it inside the television when a thin man in a red turtle neck popped up onto the screen.

"Isn't that Maximillion Pegasus the guy who started Duel Monsters?" Honda asked.

Honda seemed the right the man on screen had brown cat like eyes and hair the color of silver mercury as it flowed down perfectly straight to his shoulders covering his right eye.

"_Don't trust a man who hides his face."_

"Yeah that's Pegasus alright." Anzu answered.

The video continued, Jounouchi could feel the familiar itching that had come upon him the day before a bad feeling creeping up his spine as he stared at the TV.

'I have a bad feeling.'

"Muuto Yugi I've heard some VERY interesting things about you. One being that you defeated my reigning champion Seto Kabia. And because of that I wanted to test you for myself. Right her right now we will host a duel."

"He wants you to fight a duel over a video tape?" Honda asked.

"That's kinda weird." Anzu said.

"No, not quite children," Pegasus said answering there statements. "It's magic!"

Hair moving only away slightly enough to show a golden eyeball the room seemed to dim before slowing down and stopping. Jounouchi froze unable to move watching helplessly as his friend demanded answers.

"We're in a world you can't comprehend Yugi-boy but I'll return you after our little duel."

_The Shadow Realm_

"**This is a Shadow Game and as such I will be your opponent, prepare to duel Pegasus!"** Yugi growled.

Jounouchi shivered the tone telling him that this was like the last time it wasn't his friend anymore no it was someone else entirely. Pain arched up his arm as his arm tried to spasm if it wasn't imprisoned by the odd realm they were in. Golden eyes watched as Pegasus countered every single card Yugi played before asking him.

"Yugi-boy do you believe in magic more especially in these cards?"

"**You should know you invented the game."**

_Lies_

"What would you do if I told you I hadn't and that this game was played in ancient Egypt by pharaohs who called in the Shadow Game. Though it was not with cards like we have today they battled with the actual beast bending them to their will which eventually destroyed them."

"**If that's true why would you resurrect such a dangerous game?"** Yugi demanded.

'Yes why wouldn't you resurrect something that almost destroyed the world because it makes obvious sense that you should it wouldn't be dangerous or anything.' Jounouchi thought sarcastically.

Pegasus attacked and Jounouchi could feel the fire from the dragon's breath. 'These things are real!' Gritting his teeth he could only watch as his friend was told about how his Millennium Puzzle used to be worn by a powerful pharaoh who had originally locked the magic up in seven mystical items his puzzle being one of them. And that if he could use the magic from the puzzle he would be one of the most unbeatable forces in all the universes."

"But why would you tell me this?" Yugi demanded.

Jounouchi flinched as his scar burned the heat becoming unbearable but he couldn't do anything he could only helplessly feel as he felt like his hand was slowly being dissolved in acid not even able to scream from the pain. Soon Pegasus brushed his hair aside long enough to expose the golden Horus like eye. A cool wash of air seemed to grasp his hand making Jounouchi almost sigh if he could move his lips enough to do so. The familiar itching much preferred over the scalding burning pain the Puzzle seemed to cause.

'Does the Eye cause this sensation like the Puzzle causes the other?' Jounouchi thought curiously

Pegasus' eye strayed from Yugi long enough to glance at him making him want to jolt but being held immobile. A small laugh escaped his throat before Jounouchi watched as an old blue mist seemed to seep out of his golden eye and crawl its way towards him. Yugi stared at his hand unnoticing the mist Jounouchi's body twitched as he tried to alert his friends but the mist crept right past him before touching his burnt hand slowly twisting around it before it covered it in its entirety.

Wanting to blink he watched as the dark blue mist sunk into his glove before the painful sensation disappeared altogether. Looking back over at Pegasus a slight incline of the man's silver head was the only acknowledgement he received before the game continued.

Yugi seemed to figure out how to fight Pegasus before summoning his favorite card 'The Dark Magician'. Pegasus just stared not in the least bothered that his Millennium Eye, Jounouchi dubbed it, had been found out. When the attack didn't work against Pegasus' 'Faceless Mage' Yugi summoned 'The Celtic Guardian.'

Soon Jounouchi was amused and wanting to pout at the same time. Why are most of the humanoid cards in Duel Monsters hot? Is it fan service or something? Almost as if the monsters had heard him 'The Dark Magician' and 'Celtic Guardian' glanced a look at him. Jounouchi could have sworn he heard laughing somewhere.

Soon enough 'The Celtic Guardian' was destroyed and 'The Dark Magician' was under Pegasus' command. 'Come on Yug' you can do it!' Jounouchi silently chanted.

And the dark Yugi showed that he could summoning 'The Summoned Skull' to attack 'The Faceless Mage.' Right as the attack was going to make contact Jounouchi watched the final beep of the clock ting the field disappearing from view and announcing Pegasus as the victor.

"Phew…" Pegasus sighed mockingly "Well that was close if that attack had connected I would have lost. But I didn't sooo measuring your talent I deem that you would be a worthy contender for Duelist Kingdom and just to make sure you come…" The Millennium Eye flashed blue light zipping out and towards Grandpa a dark shadow floating out and into a blank card Pegasus was holding. "Given the right stakes anyone is willing to play my game." (2)

"Grandpa!" Yugi yelled the normal one at least the pain in the voice evidence enough that this was the normal Yugi and not the dark one.

"See you around Yugi-boy." Pegasus called mockingly once more before the video shut off with a click.

The light and warmth of the room returned finally freeing Jounouchi from his frozen animation before he lunged forward to grasp his friend in a hug.

"He took Granpa." Yugi cried clutching at Jounouchi's shirt.

"Shhh I know I know." Petting his friend from his hair to his lower back in a soothing manner. "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything I'm so sorry."

"Grandpa…" Yugi whimpered slightly

Jounouchi looked down at his friend conflicted he didn't know what to believe about Pegasus the man seemed cruel because he had just stolen his friends soul but even though he didn't have to he eased his pain that came from his burn.

'Is he bad or is he good?' Jounouchi questioned in his mind. Continuing his soothing circles holding his friend Anzu placing her hand on Yugi's shoulder sadness in her eyes as well.

'Regardless of if he has good reason he needs to pay for his crimes against my friends because if he did it to Yugi who knows who else he's done it to?'

* * *

What is Pegasus' reason? Can Jounouchi help or will he be stuck at home just as helpless as he was during the duel? Will Kaiba come into the matter? And what did Pegasus do to Jounouchi's burn and who was the man in the memory? All that and more in Another Side of the Story.

* * *

**A/N: Some bonding with Anzu because Anzu bashing just won't be my thing for this fic because she and Jounouchi actually have a really good bond in the anime/manga so yeah bro sis bond in this fic. Some work with Jou's background,**

**This chapter is based off the second episode of the English anime, and the first second and third chapter of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist. And Grandpa is mostly going to be based of the manga I like that version the best. Also 7,135 words isn't that cool?**

**Clarifications:**

**1 Haha child if only you knew my plans**

**2 This is my favorite line of his in the hole series**

**A/N: Notes about the Manga/Anime: I've noticed in my comparison between the Japanese Anime, English Anime, and Manga that a lot of things are different and scenes are in some that aren't in others so I'll be taking scenes from one and putting it in this story but deleting others. So if a scene doesn't show up that you're thinking about I deleted it or if a scene shows up it might be in one of the others.**

**Please Review and give me feedback!**


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